Visual Skills School news

hot off the press

Gus' article, titled: CHILD SOLDIERS: A LIFE WITH NO FUTURE, on p 70 of the English and Afrikaans edition of the July/August edition of De Kat (a prestigious SA magazine), is a startling report of his encounters and interviews with former child soldiers on the African continent. He addresses issues such as the military use of children, The Lord's Resistance Army, the conflic in the DRC, as well as the prohibition of and response to child soldiering. Gus is well-known in academic circles for his research on this phenomenon which also forms the topic of his doctoral thesis. He will be back in South Africa for the PSSA National Congress in October and will be one of the speakers at congress.

news news news news news

The second term at VSS kicked off at a hectic pace which never slowed down until the assessment exhibition on 26 June 2009. As always, VSS strived to keep a balance between theory and practice - in between the theory sessions we pushed practical photography on all levels in our quest for the perfect picture - to rise from mediocrity to excellence!

During this term Hein finalised, edited and published the Photography Handbook, Gus ventured into the popular press, students were exposed to competition on club level, both Hein and Gus received Pix Awards . . . but let’s start at the beginning.

Tammy Holliday - best diploma student

Caiti van Heerden - 2nd best diploma student

Jessica Botha - 3rd best diploma student

Niekie van Zyl - best part-time basic photography student

2nd exhibition 2009

ASSESSMENT EXHIBITION 27 June 2009:
The rugby proved to give a few of the students a welcome breather to do last minute adjustments to their panels and AVs. Assessors, lecturers, parents and some students were stuck to the TV to support our team!

Short course students’ panels were of excellent quality and gave the assessors a hard time to decide who the winners were - unfortunately there can only be one in each course. Winners were: Niekie van Zyl - photography; Claudio Oroni - Computer Graphic Design; Zola Boshoff - Advanced Computer Graphic Design; Congratulations!

Full time students presented a digital portfolio as well as an AV.
The AV’s assignment was that they had to use a “recipe” as their theme. The first four were so close that we think they all warrant mention. Megan Stroud came first with: "How to become a professional smoker". Her AV was well planned, scripted and executed with well placed titles and sub-titles and very appropriate music - very delightful! Danielle Souchon was a close runner up with: “How to lose your soul”. Souchi also planned, scripted and executed her AV excellently. Most of her photographs were of excellent quality. Her AV’s strong message about drug abuse and its devastating effects aroused everyone’s emotions. Tammy Holliday came third with her recipe for “How to save a life” and Caiti van Heerden with her very humorous “Pat-a-cake-a-pat” was fourth. It was evident that most students went to great lengths to produce a decent AV.

The portfolio presentations were on screen and again, most of the panels were evidence of the amount of work and dedication that went into the preparation thereof.

Student of the term was. 1st-Tammy Holliday 2nd-Caiti van Heerden 3rd- Jessica Botha and 4th- Wayne Coetzee - well done to you all.

VSS would like to extend our gratitude to all assessors who are always willing and able. A special thank you to newcomer Monique Crozier for her valuable input during the evaluation session. We hope to see her again! Parents, thank you all for your support of your children and for attending these important sessions. It was good to have you all here - we hope you enjoyed the evening!

Zola Boshoff - best part-time advanced graphic art student

Wayne Coetzee - 4th best diploma student

Megan Stroud - Best AV diploma student

Danielle Souchon (Souchi) - 2nd best AV diploma student

Claudio Oroni - best part-time graphic art student

january highlight

Sodwana dive week

for more go to last trip

february highlight

Botshabelo- available light photography

march highlight

Marekele nature & wildlife photography

april highlight

Ludwig's Roses was our top venue of the month with a great photo competition running at the moment and all students and PC club members are welcome to enter. Go to-

Catch a butterfly in flight at Ludwig's Roses Butterfly Garden

MAY highlight

Pilanesberg Game Reserve Great nature photography and a real get to know one another at the camp, Sun City and our favourite "the Shebeen"

june highlight

Rhino and Lion game reserve there are some weekends where all the animals are seen and they actually pose for the cameras, this was one of them.

The photography exhibition hosted by Eddie & Charmain Briel at Coffee@capital at the beginning of the term was opened with a sit down dinner and music by Piet Botha and Jonathan Martin. You can imagine what the main topic was between the attending photographers, exhibitors, students and friends - photography, photography and more photography! The wonderful thing of being able to see other photographers’ work on exhibition is that it always inspires one to think wider, deeper, more unconventional and to look at ordinary things from a different perspective. Isn’t that what makes us excel at what we do?

The Photography Handbook is a comprehensive guide for aspirant and more advanced photographers alike with more than a 1 000 colour photographs, graphs and illustrations. The book is packaged in an elegant plastic envelope together with a grey card, colour reference & test chart, plastic aperture & speed scale guides and DVD’s with lectures on Composition, AV production & shareware programs, as well as Masters of Photography.

The Photography Handbook covers:
COMPOSITION: Chapter 1: Composition propositions - visual perception.
Chapter 2: Colour value - science, philosophy, physics, colour in composition and social observation of colour.
TAKING THE PICTURE: Chapter 3: Taking the picture: Pinhole photography - building the pinhole camera; science of film; measuring light values & the grey card; camera exposure faults; using the grey card. Science of the lens and light - the shutter speed and light; taking the pinhole photograph.
Chapter 4: Available light photography - science and technique - equipment; the venue; the model and props.
THE DARKROOM: Chapter 5: The black & white darkroom; wet bench; dry bench; chemicals & papers; film processing tables.
Chapter 6: Black & white printing - hand prints and photograms.
WORKING THE SYSTEM: Chapter 7: The lens - depth of field science & technique; focal distances.
Chapter 8: The camera - shutter speed; the SLR camera; dials/settings; the SLR camera flash.
Chapter 9: Filters - pros & cons; the better option; Cocin filter system.
DIGITAL DARKROOM: Chapter 10: Digital darkroom - vector versus bitmap, pixels and memory; colour space bit by bit; bitmaps and pixels; digital camera files. Lightroom: basic workflow; the platform; editing black & white.Chapter 11: Photoshop - the platform; important pallets; making a selection; composite work.Chapter 12: Corel Photo Paint - basics for multi image.
THE STUDIO: Chapter 13: The studio: the portrait studio - studio lighting; studio portrait; photographic make up.
Chapter 14: The studio: tabletop - glass photography.
NATURE & WILDLIFE: Chapter 15: Nature. Chapter 16: Marine / underwater. Chapter 17: Wildlife.
AUDIO VISUAL: Chapter 18: Preparing AV images; Power Point AV;s; scriptwriting for AV.
PHOTOJOURNALISM: Chapter 19: Photo journalism - as a trade craft; equipment.

This handbook can be ordered from VSS or at http://www.photographyschool.org.za.

NEXT TERM & THE ANNUAL MALL EXHIBITION:
The Annual Mall Exhibition is the highlight of every academic year and will be held from Tuesday 22 September until Sunday 27 September. This exhibition affords students the opportunity to impress possible employers and other people in the market place with their portfolios. It also provides students with the opportunity to practice their public relations and marketing skills. Students will only have eight weeks during the third term to prepare for the Annual Mall Exhibition, which extends over a whole week - an excellent way of testing their ability to work under real pressure! Evaluation and assessment marks received at this exhibition form 50% of the final mark at the end of the year.

Visual Skills School's 2008 anual mall exhibition

Lectures at congress presented by our VSS lecturers

LECTURE: CREATIVE AUDIO VISUAL PRESENTATIONS

Part One: Thinking outside the box - Hein Waschefort
Michaelangelo said: 'A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.' An AV creator should likewise take photos with his mind and not only with his camera.
Creative, unconventional thinking and looking at ordinary things from a different perspective empowers a photographer to create extraordinary and powerful AVs. Hein Waschefort explores this thinking outside of the box with evidence that there is thinking going on inside it.

Part Two: Scriptwriting for AV - Christine Waschefort
To create an AV without a script is like going on a journey without a map. We plan everything we do, why on earth would we create an AV without a plan?

Part Three: From unconventional to fantasy - Hein Lass
All AV's are created for different reasons, but all share one common goal - to spark reaction from the viewers - the more unconventional, the stronger the reaction. Hein Lass creates audio visual fantasies that do just that: spark vigorous reaction from his viewers.

WORKSHOPS: Flash as an alternative program for creating AVs - Hein Lass Titles - Hein Lass and Hein Waschefort
Introducing stand alone vector programs (Corel Draw) for titles and title manipulation on a cross-platform basis. Get away from default titles and do your own with various ways to animate and edit titles on third party programs like Flash and Corel draw HDR Photography - Photo Challenge Camera Club, VSS Students and lecturers
Join the young guys and gals from Visual Skills School and Photo Challenge Camera Club on HDR workshops. HDR photography is best done at dawn and dusk and small groups will be assisted by a number of our photography students (there will be at least 15 students to assist with this workshop) for an almost one on one instruction on this exiting photography technique.

for more on congress go to-

congress is fully booked

PSSA CONGRESS:
The annual PSSA Congress takes place from 11 - 16 October 2009. This year the venue is none other than scenic Hermanus which is known throughout the world for whale spotting. VSS students, lecturers and old students will be staying in Gansbaai, well known for shark cage diving. VSS lecturers were invited to PSSA to participate in congress by presenting lectures and leading workshops. Students will also assist with the workshops which will expose them to the academic lecturing platform.

There are a number of international photographers

who will be lecturing at congress and all attendants are bound to learn more than they might expect.

UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY: PONTA DE OURA, MOZAMBIQUE:
All students who would like to do underwater photography must do a scuba diving course well in advance of the planned diving excursion. Atlantis Scuba Academy must be contacted for scuba courses and dates. Dawn van Staden: 012 - 546 0487 or ask for Tom-Tom. We will leave for Ponta de Oura on Monday 9 November and return to Pretoria on Friday 13 November. Students who do not dive and/or do not wish to do a scuba course, can use this excellent opportunity for snorkling and photojournalism. Ponta de Oura is a unique little Mozambican village with endless photographic opportunities.

News from the net: A photo competition "Africa Photographic Awards" boasts " a worldwide audience of amateur and professional photographers with a broad spectrum of photographic categories and the largest prize pool ever". This is probably possible because of the exorbitant entry fee of a R100.00 per entry (for a single photo). This will most certainly deter a lot of our students from entering. Furthermore, the winners in this competition cannot honestly be labled as best photographer in Africa. I might be wrong, but I feel that the competition has a ring of great financial gain for the organisers, much like paying for cell calls in order to win a prize - I find it sad that members of our photography fraternity dare to attempt competitions such as these.

For this reason Visual Skills School will not endorse such a competition.